Probe after two boys strangled by 14ft snake

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

By Jenny Johnson, Campbellton, New Brunswick

A 100lb (45kg) python blamed for the strangling deaths of two Canadian boys apparently escaped from its pet store enclosure, slithered through a ventilation system, and fell through a ceiling into the room where the brothers were sleeping, the shop’s owner has said.

Autopsies on the brothers, Connor Barthe, 7, and his brother Noah, 5, were being performed late last night.

The children had been visiting the apartment of a friend above an exotic pet store in Campbellton, New Brunswick, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Julie Rogers- Marsh.

She said the snake apparently escaped during the night and made its way into the apartment through the ventilation system.

A friend of the boys was sleeping in another room and was unharmed, she said.

The pet store owner, Jean-Claude Savoie, told the Global News television station that he did not hear a sound and discovered the “horrific scene” when he went into his living room, where the two boys had been sleeping, on Monday morning. “I can’t believe this is real,” Mr Savoie said.

The boys were the children of his best friend and were often at his home to visit his son, Mr Savoie said. The python, which he has had for at least 10 years, had been kept alone in its enclosure and was not handled by anyone else, he added.

The snake is about 14 feet (4.3m) long, Sergeant Alain Tremblay said.

He said police are looking at whether the pet store followed the province’s regulations on exotic animals.

Ian Comeau, the town’s deputy mayor, said the Reptile Ocean shop was licensed to operate and “everything was according to our bylaws, to the provincial guidelines”.

He said he saw alligators, crocodiles, and snakes when he toured the shop with the fire department about two years ago.

Snake expert John Kendrick, a manager at the Reptile Store in Hamilton, Ontario, said it sounds like the python was not enclosed properly and might have been spooked.

He called the strangling deaths “very unusual” but said African rock pythons tend to be highly strung.

“It’s very odd that one would go out and seek out a person. They don’t recognise us as food,” he said.

It is possible the python was just holding on to what it landed on, he said, adding pythons can sense heat, and if they are startled, can grab something.

He said snakes are very long and their muscles run lengthwise through their body, so they are not very stable unless they are holding on to something.

“A snake that size was just trying to hold on securely enough to make sure he felt like he wasn’t falling or going anywhere; he has enough muscle power to cut off circulation,” he said.

“Once they are in constricting mode, any part of their body that is touching something that moves, they’ll wrap it. I’ve seen snakes with two different prey items at the same time, one with the back of the body and one with the front. It could have been an incident like that.”